What a surprise.

President Barack Obama doesn’t agree with Republicans. This time, however, it’s about how our military should be funded, and in the process his impending veto will deny more than a million American veterans benefits who are in dire need of support.

According to a White House spokesperson, POTUS plans to put the kibosh on the 2016 defense policy bill — a $612 billion annual bill, that is — that was approved by the House earlier in the week and is expected to pass successfully through the Senate on Wednesday.

There is, reportedly, enough support in Congress for Obama’s veto to withstand its might. It would be only the fifth of his entire presidency.

The bill brings back a lot of programs the Pentagon wanted to get rid of. It changes how the military purchases weapons and equipment, ban “advanced interrogation techniques” including waterboarding, builds cyber mission forces, and even reforms how prisoners are transferred from Guantanamo Bay.

Above all else though? It expands retirement benefits for veterans.

This from NASDAQ.com:

The bill also includes an expansion to the military retirement system, covering the 83% of troops who serve less than 20 years and don’t have access to retirement benefits, and requires a “capacity study” on military housing and infrastructure but doesn’t allow the military to immediately conduct a base realignment and closure, or BRAC, process.

Basically, it would work like this: more troops would receive retirement benefits (and sooner — you wouldn’t have to serve at least two decades under this system) but less would be contributed to military pensions overall. Instead, it opens up the opportunity for troops to funnel a portion of their into 401(k)-fashioned accounts, which the government would match — up to only 5 percent, however, for a 26-year period.

The bill also has provisions to “expand access for troops and veterans to prescription drugs, childcare, military flights for families of service members and treatment at urgent care facilities”, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Many Republicans are up in arms about Obama’s resistance to a bill that would bring much-needed aid to the men and women serving the United States.

“It is unbelievable to me that an American president would threaten to veto a defense bill that supports our troops and gives him additional tools to use against aggressors, especially at a time when the world situation is spiraling out of control from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and South Asia,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R., Texas). “This is a time to stand together for our nation’s security, rather than play cheap political games.”

“The president of the United States is placing budgetary issues ahead of the welfare and benefit of the men and women serving the military and their ability to defend the nation,” said Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R., Ariz.).

“Shameful.”